Arizona & Other News

The Tigers moved up a spot in both polls this week, and are sitting at #18 heading into tonight's game at Arizona.

Arizona is favored by 7.5-8 points tonight, and is ranked #9. Coach Cal is quoted in a Tucson paper as saying the Wildcats are better than their ranking. That's a good way to make a loss seem not as harmful and a win even better, I guess.

The game tonight is at 7:30pm Central Time and will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net.

On a non-game-related note, the CA is reporting that Darius Washington, Jr. is being sued for child support by his ex-girlfriend. Boy, nothing like the fall from grace. That clip of him crumbling to the floor at the free throw line would still be airing at every game if he was still playing. Who told him to get an agent? Good advice, there.

On another non-game-related note, and a very sad one, from Eyewitness News: "one time Memphis Tigers guard Tanqueray "Tank" Beavers was found dead Sunday night at TGI Friday's on University Drive in Huntsville Alabama. Beavers was one of two patrons shot to death, while two others were injured in the shooting. No arrests had been made as of Monday afternoon. The former All-State performer signed with the University of Memphis in 2004. He was the career assists leader at Athens High School. Beavers played sparingly as a freshman for Memphis during the 2004-05 season and ended up quitting the team because of a lack of playing time. The 21 year old had been working construction in Huntsville."

Final Score: Tigers 71- Arizona 79. I was optimistic at halftime, but the Tigers couldn't keep it together to fight off Arizona in the second half. We're running out of opportunities for quality wins...

Dicky V loves Dozier

Robert Dozier is one of Dick Vitale's Five "Sophomores to Watch."

The Austin Peay game was bumped back one hour, and will now tip off Thursday night at 8pm instead of 7pm. It will be televised locally on WLMT CW30.

Recovery Update

So I may have finally recovered from the loss at Knoxville last week. Maybe. I couldn't bring myself to blog going into the Ole Miss game, and so I just thought I'd take a break. You can read about our victory over the Rebels. It was a solid win, and I hope that it's an indication of what is to come.

And what IS to come? Our next game is Thursday night against Austin Peay, then we have six days to prepare for the game on the 20th at Arizona.

Today the Tigers dropped 3 spots to #19 in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls. I'm actually quite pleasantly surprised, after the Vols rolled over us I thought we'd fall to the bottom, if not completely out of, the top 25.

Cross-State Matchup

Tonight the Tigers travel to Knoxville to play the Vols. Just in the interest of full disclosure, I hate the Vols. And it seems the coaches are already talking a little coach-smack.

Anyway, there's no line yet. I'll update this post with that information. Update: Tigers are favored by 1.0-2.0. Not much.

The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 8pm CT.

GO TIGERS!

Final update: Just read it. I don't wanna talk about it.

Dozier featured in ESPN "Replacements" article

From ESPN.com:

John Calipari's claims that this Memphis team could be as good as last season's were probably a little generous. With all the attrition, it would be a surprise to see another No. 1 seed from the Tigers this season. But one player who has made tremendous use of his increased playing time is Dozier.

In 2005-06 as a freshman, Dozier was a capable defensive replacement when inserted for Williams in the Calipari press, but offensively he was much more timid. Dozier has been more assertive this season, resulting in a mix of results. The big surprise is that he's been much more efficient from the field than he was last season, but not surprisingly he has also had a case of the dropsies more often than Williams did.

It hasn't been all rosy, however. He fouled out in just eight minutes of action against Georgia Tech, which should be enough to cause folks to hesitate about whether he will consistently produce against more athletic opponents. But so far, we can say that Dozier has made progress towards making significant contributions to the Memphis offense.

Dozier vs. Williams
	FGA/40 MIN	PTS/40 MIN	eFG%	TO/40 MIN
Dozier ('06-07)	14.1	21.7	58.7%	4.4
Williams ('05-06)	15.0	18.9	48.0%	3.2

Monday it's Marshall

Tonight the Tigers play Marshall in the C-USA opener tonight in the FedExForum at 7 pm. The oddsmakers have us favored by 21-22 points. The game will be broadcast in the Memphis area on WLMT CW 30.

It's early for conference play, and we don't have another conference matchup until Jan 11. The early game is the result of the conference expanding the schedule from 14 to 16 games.

Poll News: The ESPN/USA Today poll has kept us at #17. Hopefully when the AP poll is released today the Tigers will not fall from #14. Update: We did. Fall. Down to #16. Which I hate because we didn't lose last week. I guess beating Arkansas State and Manhattan wasn't enough to maintain #14. Whatever.

Final Score: 78-59. Only a 19 point win, that's two games in a row the Tigers didn't cover the spread. But, again, a W is still a W.

The Tigers did shoot 17 out of 20 free throws, which is a near miraculous turn around from the last game...

NEXT: The Vols. Tomorrow night in Knoxville, 8pm CT, live on ESPN2.

Also: DeAngelo Williams had an awesome night on Monday Night Football. Too bad the Panthers couldn't hold on to their lead.

Tigers take on Manhattan

Robert Dozier just took the ball to the hoop, over some little Manhattan player. The announcer actually said, "This is a mismatch." This? This one-on-one? The WHOLE GAME is a mismatch. But whatever.

Of course we're only winning by one point right now. I'll just shut up until it's over.

Halftime Update: Okay, so we're up by 17, which is more like it... But still, it got awfully sloppy there towards the end. Is it wrong that I feel sorta sad for these little teams, that come in to play us in "buy" games? Do they feel bad about themselves? Or are they just excited to see what they can do against a ranked team? Okay... I'm gonna shut up.

Final Score: 77-59. Well. It's a win, but it left a little something to be desired. They weren't sharp, they didn't seem focused, they couldn't buy a three pointer or a free throw. But, I guess a W is a W.

Coming up: The Tigers take on Marshall on Monday night, in the conference opener. That is followed by a trip to Knoxville to play the Vols on Wednesday, and then Ole Miss visits the Forum on Saturday afternoon. A busy week, all in all. Here's hoping the Tigers can finish it 3-0.